great chief foreign correspondent richard engel, and his crew are free after being held captive in syria for five days. they were abducted by a group of gunmen after they drove through what they thought was rebel-controlled territory. they escaped during a firefight between their captors and the rebels. and they safely reached turkey today. this morning on the "today" show, engel described the kinds of things he and his crew were subjected to by their kidnappers. >> they kept us blindfolded, bound. we weren't physically beaten or tortured. it was a lot of psychological torture, threats of being killed. they made us choose which one of us would be shot first, and when we refused, there were mock shootings. >> mock shootings. richard engel is back with us. he's one of the best reporters around the world regularly risking his life to report from war zones across the middle east. we're very happy he's safe and sound tonight, and we'll be right back. >>> welcome back to "hardball." by most accounts the two sides in the fiscal cliff talks are moving closer and closer to striking a deal. wel